Accel Partners Leads Series B Investment of $35 Million in MemSQL

Prominent Investors Enthusiastic about a $32.4 Billion Market Opportunity for In-Memory Database Company Delivering Big Data Analytics in Real Time

SAN FRANCISCO, January 22, 2014 - MemSQL, a leader in distributed in-memory database technology for real-time Big Data analytics, today announced it has secured $35 million in Series B funding. The investment, led by Accel Partners, will enable the company to expand product development, support its growing customer base and capitalize on the market for Big Data technologies, which is forecasted to reach $32.4 billion by 2017 or about six times the growth rate of the overall information and communication technology market*. The round included participation from Khosla Ventures and existing investors First Round Capital and Data Collective, as well as from several private financiers, and brings the total raised by MemSQL to $45 million.

The company was founded in 2011 by former Facebook engineers Eric Frenkiel and Nikita Shamgunov. The co-founders saw the flaws in legacy Big Data solutions and built an in-memory, clustered application that supports high-volume online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytical processing (OLAP) workloads while providing a full SQL interface.

“Through Accel’s Big Data Fund, we see a very broad database landscape. We’ve backed breakout open-source leaders Couchbase on the transactional side and Cloudera, with its Enterprise Data Hub, on the analytic side, but we also believe there is a very distinct place for MemSQL in real-time analytics. No executive wants to wait for insights anymore, and MemSQL’s in-memory, SQL technology means they don’t have to,” said Kevin Efrusy, general partner, Accel Partners. “MemSQL has a strong team and a great track record for delivery, so we are thrilled to be their partner.”

In addition to being the world’s fastest in-memory database, MemSQL is the first Big Data analytics company to introduce JSON technology into its platform, combining structured and JSON data into a single database utilizing SQL, the most commonly used query language. This means that organizations can harness and combine two disparate data sources for operational analytics, network security, real-time recommendations and risk management. Current MemSQL customers include Comcast, Zynga, Shutterstock and Ziff Davis, as well as many new mid-market customers.

“Demand for our in-memory database technology has been tremendous,” said Frenkiel, co-founder and CEO, MemSQL. “Customers are drawn to our solution because it delivers extremely fast performance on commodity hardware and has the ability to store and query multiple data formats in a single database. The result is an extremely fast Big Data solution with versatility and ease of use that lets customers see immediate ROI. This investment will help us grow our company and increase customer adoption.”

Big Data and real-time analytics profoundly impact the way organizations operate and engage with customers. However, there are challenges that prevent companies from fully extracting value from their data. Legacy database technologies are prone to latency, require complex and expensive architectures, and rely on slow disk-based technology. The result is an outdated computing infrastructure that cannot handle the velocity and volume of data in the timeframe required of a true real-time solution. MemSQL solves this performance bottleneck with its distributed in-memory computing model that runs on cost-effective commodity servers.

About MemSQL

MemSQL is the world's fastest in-memory SQL database that accelerates applications, powers real-time analytics, and combines structured and semi-structured data into a consolidated Big Data solution. MemSQL empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions, better engage customers, discover competitive advantages, and reduce costs. MemSQL is proven in production environments across hundreds of nodes in the most high-velocity Big Data environments in the world. Based in San Francisco, MemSQL is a Y Combinator company funded by prominent venture capitalists and angel investors, including Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and Data Collective.

About Accel Partners

Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, New York City, London, and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.